Princeton YMCA — Local services in Princeton

I am a new member there. I joined to mostly use the pool. Today was my first time there early this morning at 7 AM and honestly, I was not really sure how things work as far as lap swim being again, my first time there. Well it was a horrible experience. I went in a lane on the end where two women were also swimming. I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed in the lane with two other people being my first time there. I assumed we just all share doing our laps. Well an older woman started screaming at me in front of everyone. She looked at other woman in lane and said what the hell is she doing. Then proceeded to keep screaming at me to get out and go in other lane. I tried to explain I was new and I was really sorry yet she proceeded to scream at me to get over to other lane. I was really embarrassed and humiliated. I left the there crying. My heart was pound and I felt so badly. No one should feel that way because of another member. She truly needs to be spoken to or lose her membership. What a horrible experience for the first time there. I truly am new and I am not a rude person. I meant no harm. Her behavior was unacceptable. The problem though, the lifeguard on duty did not do or say anything. He actually had headphones on. He was in his own world. I was really excited to join but this put such a bad taste in my mouth. No one should be made to feel threatened by a member. However, I did report to the front desk a few hours later and lady at desk was beyond lovely. She was very comforting and apologized for the experience. I truly appreciate her empathy and kindness. My review is fir the member and the lifeguard who did not intervene. It has nothing to do with the facility...

2.5/5 — Good facility, confusing fees/cancellation. Read before joining.

I used the Princeton YMCA from July 15 to August 8, 2025 as an alternative to Dillon Gym. The equipment and facility are clean, well maintained, and solid for weight/functional training. However, several policies felt confusing and unfavorable to members:

The monthly fees is around $80 which was made clear on their website but $55 one-time fee (for new members) appeared only at online checkout during my signup. In my experience, this wasn’t clearly disclosed up front.

30-day advance cancellation required. If you want only July, you basically need to sign up on July 1 and submit cancellation immediately, or you’ll likely be charged for August.

No proration for mid-month starts. If you join mid-month and cancel right away, the 30-day rule still pushes billing into the next month --- effectively another full month.

Locker room privacy: Showers are open (no partitions); expect people walking nude between locker and shower areas.

Account deletion: I couldn’t delete my account online; I had to email/call to request removal.

Bottom line: Great gym equipment, but the billing/cancellation rules and limited online controls make it easy to pay more than expected. If you do join, start on the 1st, budget for the $55 fee, submit cancellation immediately if you’re short-term, and confirm current policies before paying. This is my longest review because I felt some of these policies are unfair to...

If you’re looking for swimming, this is one of the worst managed swimming lessons.

Individual lessons:

My kid had individual session and each day a new trainer will take the lesson and didn’t even know what was thought in previous classes. They asked the kid what was thought in previous lessons and go by that. How would they expect a 7 year old to explain everything thought in previous lessons.

Believe me, it was a session with five classes and each class was handled by a new trainer.

Group session:

Then I switched to group sessions. It’s even more pathetic. They cancel classes randomly but won’t have the common sense to inform us. We drive up there and then they will say it’s cancelled. For the cancelled classes, they will schedule the makeup classes on a time when kids can’t even go. They rescheduled couple of makeup class by 4 pm on a weekday and by that time kids wouldn’t even reach home from school.

Instead of refunding us the money for cancelled class, they schedule it untime so that nobody will come anyway and now it’s on us that we didn’t attend.

Honestly, it’s managed by people with no experience on how classes work and no knowledge of what their responsibilities are. It’s more like a scam, where classes are scheduled in a way we will be forced to miss it and it’s now on us because we didn’t attend the...